The Witcher - German Rating Changed to "18"

October 9th, 2007, 15:30

A few weeks ago weīve posted, based on infos by CD Projekt, that The Witcher had been rated "16" by the German USK. As it turned out the news was a bit premature. The USK changed their mind and decided to give The Witcher an "18".
The good news: The game will be uncut and multilingual! More information.

Itīs far worse in Germany. Most action games are cut, and the most extreme ones not even released in Germany. We didnīt get Dead Rising and Gears of War for example. The unrated international versions were banned (Gears) or even confiscated (Dead Rising).

Originally Posted by Gorath
Itīs far worse in Germany. Most action games are cut, and the most extreme ones not even released in Germany. We didnīt get Dead Rising and Gears of War for example. The unrated international versions were banned (Gears) or even confiscated (Dead Rising).

Uhhh…really? Thanks for internet and possibility of ordering game from diffreant country.

If they are so concerned about the rating then they should have made a game for 16 year olds so mom and dad would be willing to buy it for them for Christmas.

I would rather say itīs a positive surprise Atari remembered that RPGs usually can be a bit more drastic because they require brains and play in an unrealistic fantasy scenario. Often enough publishers donīt even submit the uncut version to the USK. Then you get Command & Conquer with robots who are leaking oil.

The problem is that the USK has to refuse a rating if they suspect a game is harmful for children according to the established (informal!) standards. The publisher on the other hand needs a rating because only a USK rating protects them from the BPjM. They canīt risk that the BPjM puts a game on Liste A (-> " the Index" -> still legal but no availability in places to which children have access -> commercial death) or even worse on Liste B (-> court -> confiscation; possession still legal for private use; selling is a crime) because they would lose almost all of their German revenues.

Imports are of course possible. Sending an unrated or "18" game via mail is illegal though if you canīt be 100% sure that the recipient is an adult. So thereīs a chance customs will confiscate it if they find it.

Originally Posted by Gorath
I would rather say itīs a positive surprise Atari remembered that RPGs usually can be a bit more drastic because they require brains and play in an unrealistic fantasy scenario. Often enough publishers donīt even submit the uncut version to the USK. Then you get Command & Conquer with robots who are leaking oil.

The problem is that the USK has to refuse a rating if they suspect a game is harmful for children according to the established (informal!) standards. The publisher on the other hand needs a rating because only a USK rating protects them from the BPjM. They canīt risk that the BPjM puts a game on Liste A (-> " the Index" -> still legal but no availability in places to which children have access -> commercial death) or even worse on Liste B (-> court -> confiscation; possession still legal for private use; selling is a crime) because they would lose almost all of their German revenues.

Imports are of course possible. Sending an unrated or "18" game via mail is illegal though if you canīt be 100% sure that the recipient is an adult. So thereīs a chance customs will confiscate it if they find it.

No, I haven't anything about the AU version, to be honest. I would say it's dicey - violence and nudity separately are rarely problems but if there is a situation where you can attack a prostitute, dryad or anyone else who gets their boobies out, it could be a problem.

CD Projekt once said you could (try to) kill anyone in the game but, in fact, you can only draw your sword when the area is signaled "unsafe", so it looks like this changed to me at this point.

Edit: I have contact details for the right PR people, so I'll just ask.